Work on just ONE company. "The Oracle Company".

Word Limit: 2500

OBJECTIVE
To provide a structured strategic and financial analysis of The Oracle Company and to write up findings.

WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO
Imagine that you have decided to form a 'Shareholders Club'. This is an informal arrangement where you will contribute about €1,000 to invest in equity shares of a company. You decide that it would be useful to compare the company in which you are thinking of investing and to find out more about it. The company should be from different industries. You are aware that the company produce an annual report and financial statements. You get hold of a copy of these documents, as you have read somewhere that they are intended to provide information useful for making economic decisions.
In order to provide a comparative analysis in a structured way, you decide to put together a report that will identify those issues that appear relevant to your investment decision. The report should include the decision on whether or not to invest in the company and to give reasons for the decisions.

WHAT YOU WILL SUBMIT

You must get access to a copy of the latest three annual reports and accounts of the company (these should be for the two most recent financial years). Larger, quoted companies tend to produce more informative annual reports than smaller, unquoted ones. Also use later interim accounts if these are available.
It is for you to decide what information is relevant and what to include in your report. It is often useful to consider the following. 
(a)  What strengths and weaknesses are apparent from the review of the annual reports? 
(b) What key performance measures may be relevant to the company and are these reported? If so, how have the company done against stated objectives? If not, can key performance measures be computed and analysed between the the company? 
(c) What information is provided about future prospects and strategies for improvement? Are these consistent with reported results and other available information?
You do not have to limit your sources of information to the annual reports. Your report may deal with non-financial issues as well as financial ones. However, your report must include an analysis of the financial position and performance of the chosen company.
Please give a list of specific references when you use data sources from either the annual / interim reports or from any other sources that you use. The Harvard System of referencing should be used. Please note that I want specific references to data and quotations and NOT a general bibliography! 

The length of the report is not defined, but it should not normally be less than 2,500 words. You should bear in mind that it is the quality of analysis that matters, not the number of words in the report. Please remember that a shorter focused report with quality in its analysis will earn more marks than a rambling and repetitive description, with irrelevant Appendices that are not referenced in the main text of your report.
Paper Format  
Introduction 

• Information about the company

Fundamental Analysis of the industries (Qualitative analysis) Retail

•  
  • Porter's Five Forces Analysis
    • Industry rivalry
    • Threat of substitutes
    • Bargaining power of buyers
    • Bargaining power of suppliers
    • Barriers to entry
• Oil
  • Porter's Five Forces Analysis
    • Industry rivalry
    • Threat of substitutes
    • Bargaining power of buyers
    • Bargaining power of suppliers
    • Barriers to entry
• IT
  • Porter's Five Forces Analysis
    • Industry rivalry
    • Threat of substitutes
    • Bargaining power of buyers
    • Bargaining power of suppliers
    • Barriers to entry

Fundamental Analysis of the companies (Qualitative analysis)

• Oracle
  • SWOT Analysis
    • Strengths
    • Weakness
    • Opportunities
    • Threats

Technical Analysis of the companies (Quantitative analysis)

• Oracle
  • Ratio Analysis
    • Liquidity Ratios
      • Current ratio
      • Quick ratio
    • Profitability
      • Gross Profit Margin
      • Operating Profit Margin
      • Net Profit Margin
      • EBITDA
      • Return on Assets (ROA) 
      • Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) 
      • Return on Equity (ROE) 
    • Debt
      • Debt to Asset Ratio 
      • Debt to Equity Ratio 
      • Interest Coverage Ratio 
    • Cash Flow
      • Operating cash flow ratio
      • Average Collection Period
      • Average Payment Period
    • Investment
      • Book Value per Share
      • Dividend payout ratio
      • Dividend Yield
  • Stock Analysis

Conclusion and Recommendations (Whether to Invest or Not in the Oracle Company)Biography. Helpful links to find the Financial Analysis on the Oracle Company are:

http://investor.oracle.com/financial-reporting/quarterly-reports/default.aspxHistorical shareprices

http://investor.oracle.com/stock-information/stock/default.aspx